NCTA Chief Powell Gets
Warm WICT Reception,
Genachowski Praise

5/09/2011 12:01 AM Eastern

By: John Eggerton , Kent Gibbons

New NCTA president Michael Powell got
a warm welcome from an old friend on May 4.

Federal Communications Commission chairman Julius
Genachowski came to a Women in Cable Telecommunications-
sponsored reception welcoming Powell,
himself a former FCC chairman, to his new gig as president
and CEO of the National Cable & Telecommunications
Association.

Genachowski said the NCTA picked the best candidate,
pointing out Powell was one of the people whose
advice Genachowski sought before joining the FCC. The
advice he received was thoughtful, nonpartisan and constructive,
he said.

Powell told The Wire he has known Genachowski for
two decades, going back to when Powell clerked for the
U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit and Genachowski
clerked for U.S. Supreme Court Justice David Souter.

Powell was thinking about going for a high-court clerkship
and spoke with Genachowski about possibly clerking
for Souter. Powell said he eventually decided that, with a
wife and family, he needed to get a job, and entered private
practice.

Comcast, a WICT supporter and the NCTA’s largest
member, was well represented, with new Washington
president and Powell predecessor Kyle McSlarrow,
now president of Comcast/NBC Universal Washington,
on hand, along with corporate executive vice president
David Cohen.

Powell joked that “it has become very clear that the
critiera for being the president/CEO of NCTA is to be a
bald former Army officer” — McSlarrow as a captain,
Powell as a first lieutenant on the captain’s list before
being seriously injured in an accident.

“Kyle took over the agency knowing nothing about
communications, and I think he left the agency being
the premier thought leader in this space,” Powell said of
his predecessor, sounding like a former FCC chairman
in using the term “agency.”

He said McSlarrow built a team “second to none,” displaying
the aplomb that has already made him popular
with NCTA staffers.

Powell said he was “deeply moved” by the welcome.

C-SPAN Local Tour
In ‘Content Vehicles’
Targets Eight Cities

C-SPAN is hitting the road again, kicking off a tour in
which the history and literary life of eight Southeastern
cities — one each month from May through December
— will be featured on the cable network’s non-fiction
book channel (BookTV on C-SPAN2) and history channel
(American History TV on C-SPAN3).

The tour will visit Bright House Networks in Tampa,
Fla., this week, with content airing May 28-29; Comcast
in Savannah, Ga., the week of June 6 (airs June 25-26);
Comcast in Charleston, S.C., the week of July 4 (airs
July 30-31); Time Warner Cable in Charlotte, N.C., the
week of Sept. 5 (airs Sept. 24-25); Comcast in Knoxville,
Tenn., the week of Oct. 3 (airs Oct. 29-30); BHN in Birmingham,
Ala., the week of Nov. 7 (airs Nov. 26-27) andCox Communications in Baton Rouge, La., the week of
Dec. 5 (airs Dec. 24-25).

An earlier visit to Frankfort Plant Board in Frankfort,
Ky., will air the weekend of Aug. 27-28.

‘Nail Files’ Mobile Spa
Targets 11-City Swing
To TVGN Affiliates

TV Guide Network is backing
its upcoming original series Nail
Files with an 11-city mobile-spa
tour. It kicks off Saturday, May
14, at North Point Mall in Alpharetta,
Ga. Nail Files will debut
on Tuesday, June 21, at 10 p.m.

“Launching a multimarket
mobile-spa tour will bring the excitement
of the Hollywood salon
experience and the energy of
our new Nail Files series to our distribution partners and
viewers nationwide,” Friday Abernethy, executive vice
president of affiliate sales and marketing at the network,
said. “They’ll get a sneak peek of our new show, receive
complimentary salon treatments, and in select markets,
meet the star of Nail Files, Katie Cazorla.”

Abernethy told The Wire that Comcast plans to display
content on iPads at some stops, as one example of an
affiliate tie-in. She said this was the biggest integrated
marketing campaign to date for the network under new
ownership, led by Lionsgate.

Here’s a rough itinerary
after the first stop:
Charlotte, N.C., May 18;
Washington D.C. May
20-21; Boston, May 25;
Philadelphia, May 28-29;
Cleveland, June 4; New
York City, June 13-15; Los
Angeles, June 21-23; Las
Vegas, June 25-26; Phoenix,
Ariz., on June 29 and
Houston, July 3-4.